Thursday, March 08, 2012

Free-Range Yoga *cluck, cluck*

I've kept my mouth shut (fingers still?) on all the latest scandals, slanders, and fuss--partially because I don't have anything new to say and partially because a lot of it seems to be about generating hype. I don't want to contribute to any more ill-deserved page hits.

However, with each new revelation, I'm struck by how much Big Yoga is starting to resemble Big Ag. You would think people so concerned with health and what they do to their bodies would embrace local, sustainable models for their yoga like, I assume, they do with their veggies.

Instead, there seems to be a drive to incorporate, brand, and standardize the practice in order to deliver a sleek, well-muscled, high-fructose Yoga ready for market in nine short weeks. Fast, cheap, mass-produced spirituality available at your nearest yoga franchise.

Where's the farmers' market version of yoga--lovingly grass-fed, allowed to graze and develop naturally in a small herd, led by an independent farmer? A bit more expensive, maybe, a bit more variation in quality--but, all in all, healthier, safer, and, as I said before, more sustainable.

The food poisoning outbreaks of the last few years in the yoga world seem closely tied to production practices: powerful executives, unquestioning producers, self-directed quality control, and a fixation on the bottom line. We should be community-based and student-centered. We should celebrate our local studios and support individual teachers. We should encourage a yoga that meets the need of many students, not just the urban and the leisured.

And while I love the energy of (some of) the internet community, this is ultimately a practice of human interaction and personal contact. Let's stay in touch with our own neck of the woods, even as we inform our practice with connections around the world. A teacher needs to know and see her students--no microphone necessary. A student needs to receive personal attention and have an interactive relationship with her teacher and class--no numbered mats in a giant conference hall.

If anything is learned from this winter's shenanigans, it is that yoga needs to get small again. Not to withdraw or detach from the larger community, but to bring the focus back to the personal level. To cool it with the corporate crap and the fast buck. Let's stop admiring superficial beauty and return to the essential and internal (sorry, not Olympic event material).

I want my yoga like I want my chickens...free-range, but with access to a tidy coop with protection from foxes. Eggs with big orange yolks.

(that last bit of that metaphor is open for interpretation--but it's what I like!)

Love it too! Well said. I think most of us that have keep our mouths shut and fingers still(although I did write one little thing)realize what yoga is, it is about the close personal relationship with our students and not about branding, naming or otherwise 'incorporating' it.Great read!

Hear hear! I love the farmers market version of yoga (and your whole analogy). Being an independent farmer myself, sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with the direction that yoga is going in. I need to continue to remind myself to be proud to be local and keep my attention focused on my little community and reach, no matter how small it may be. Great post!

My yoga's been small all along--and that'ss what I told my Anusara-inspired teacher when she expressed her embarrassment about the whole mess: I was benefiting greatly from her class long before I ever heard of John Friend, and I continue to.

Excellent post. I love my small-town, community-minded studio where I both received training and where I teach. However, I also love that there are other teachers out there who put their knowledge to paper (and video) so I can learn from those outside of my pond. I know I benefit from outside learning and I believe my students do too. Thanks for the thoughtful post and the call to action by living and teaching with integrity.

As a former food writer turned yoga teacher, I'm struck by the aptness of your analogy. I once interviewed a salmon "farmer" who said that in 10 years, farmed salmon would be as common as what he called "the chicken product." Yikes! Right now what's really common is depleted wild stocks caused, apparently, by the viruses and sea lice that flourish in fish farms. The whole big, glitzy, scandal-ridden yoga world is so far away from the true cultivation of yoga, passing directly from one individual to another. Thank you for giving me a new way of thinking about my small, local, independent studio.

Truly fabulously said!! This is why I love teaching in Brooklyn at the studio around the corner from my house. I am teaching my neighbors: from long time Brooklyn residents to hipsters! It is like going to the CSA you never know what that basket is going to be but you wait all week to see what you get to cook :)

Fabulously said!! This is why I love teaching in Brooklyn at the studio around the corner from my house. I teach long time residents to hipsters and they are all my neighbors!! It is like going to the CSA, you never know what is going to be in the basket but you wait excitedly all week to see what you are going to cook!!

About Me

I see myself as a passionate advocate for Common Sense Yoga. Nothing flashy, nothing noisy, nothing trademarked. I've been practicing yoga for a couple of decades, teaching it for six years, and writing about it for five. It suits me, and let me tell you why...